Fault or glitch?

[Primus1]

Driving home tonight I noticed the car didn’t drive on the Battery, despite it being one dot off full, it didn’t switch to ev driving, my display is not on the infotainment screen as mine has city pack so is in front of me, it showed the red flow to the batteries most of the time but also showed the green ev drive and the red flow to the front wheels at the same time, it also showed the darker green when lifting off ( regen ), I was only doing max 30 mph but did this at any speed, it did, however, revert to normal use after about 8 miles or so as I was nearing home, I hope you can make sense of my ramblings, so has this happened to anyone else?, obviously I will monitor this and report back…

[TonyHSD]

Neither fault or glitch, it’s just the hybrid system optimises itself according to conditions. The average air temperatures is dropping down with the seasons changing and so is the car behaviour and the engine will be on more often and for a longer times. Efficiency will also so be reduced and in peak winter season can be by 10mpg or even more. Wind, rain, lower pressure in tyres takes their tool too. 

[Jimota]

Conditions have changed in my part of Scotland and I echo everything Tony has mentioned.  Apart from a couple freak days when the temperature was quite warm, I’m now finding the engine cuts in shortly after moving off and the digital read out has reduced from a steady 70.5 to 69.9 mpg.  A further reduction is anticipated over the next few weeks.

[Primus1]

Ah, this explains things, I too noticed the engine kicks in almost as soon as I move off, I’ve noticed my mpg has dropped from a steady 66/68 mpg to around 59/62, good to know it’s all normal, thanks chaps…👍

[Cyker]

Yeah it's the car trying to keep the car warm; If you're on a fast road the drop is negligible, but if crawling slowly through town like I usually do the engine has to run more to supply heat to the cabin.

If you turn the HVAC off it almost behaves as normal, although as it gets colder you'll eventually be freezing your proverbials off or put on so many layers you become more coat than man!  

[Stopeter44]

10 hours ago, Primus1 said:

i…t also showed the darker green when lifting off ( regen ), I was only doing max 30 mph but did this at any speed, it did, however, revert to normal use…

This happens, too, when the HVAC is full. You’ll see the charge/recharge arrows on the indicator as normal, but on long downhill stretches the system can’t go past full. You, in effect, lose the regen braking, until you use some of that stored energy.

[Primus1]

Still not finding the ev mode cutting in despite the outside temps being in the high teens/early twenties, not using air con any different to the summer, heating usually set to 22/23 on cooler mornings but 19 or 20 most days ..

[Gray86]

GPF is my guess. If you do a lot of short trips it will be keen to regen, hence keeping the engine on. People have suggested a longer drive and using B mode to blow oxygenated air through the GPF to get it cleared 

[Primus1]

23 minutes ago, Gray86 said:

GPF is my guess. If you do a lot of short trips it will be keen to regen, hence keeping the engine on. People have suggested a longer drive and using B mode to blow oxygenated air through the GPF to get it cleared 

I do an 18 mile round trip to work and back, various roads including a dual carriageway, always going somewhere on a weekend, surely it can’t take a week to regen?

[Gray86]

1 hour ago, Primus1 said:

I do an 18 mile round trip to work and back, various roads including a dual carriageway, always going somewhere on a weekend, surely it can’t take a week to regen?

With that daily mileage, can probably rule it out. I’m out of ideas 

[dannyboy413]

It probably starts, but has not completed when you have got to where you are going. When you start the car again, the regen' starts all over again and if it has not finished by the time you get to your destination.................. Just a thought.

[Primus1]

It used to cut in fairly regularly even at higher speeds on the dual carriageway, the eco needle is in the lower bit where it normally comes on but it’s still running the engine the Battery indicator shows one dot off full, ( even goes to full briefly) and it’s still using the engine, it is showing both engine and ev ( red and green on the display), I’m going on a bit longer run this afternoon so I’ll see how it goes and report back…

[Cyker]

Things to try:

Turning the heater off completely - This will tell you whether the car is keeping the engine on to supply cabin heat (Likely the cause if it's cold where you are - Last winter, if I had it set above 18C the engine would never turn off if I was just driving in traffic)

Driving in B mode for a bit - If the engine is trying to regen the particulate filter but can't, this gives it more opportunity to by pumping pure intake air through the exhaust instead of combustion exhaust, providing the necessary oxygen to trigger regen.

[Primus1]

👍 will see how it goes this afternoon 

[Cyker]

Good luck!

[Primus1]

Been out for a 56 mile round trip and it kinda was ok, it still seemed to me that it spent more time running the engine than it ran in ev, is it supposed to show the yellow green arrows indicating it’s in ev mode and the red charging/ engine running ( pointing to the front wheels) at the same time….?

[Cyker]

Normally it only shows two arrows (i.e. EV and ICE at the same time) when the car is going through it's just-turned-on procedure.

That said, it's common for it to be showing green (charging) and red arrows going to the Battery at the same time when you're slowing down, or when it's trying to regen the filter, when it's cold outside.

Having both the yellow (Powering the wheels) and red arrows going to the wheels mostly happens when I'm giving it some beans and am in the PWR band, but can also happen during the warmup procedure or when the Battery is very full.

 

Mine starts to behave unusually when the season starts getting cold, as it struggles to provide heat for the cabin, so likely is normal behaviour.

[Roy124]

Just done an 80 mile trip through the Wolds.  64 mpg and EV 26%.  OAT 18 and aircon set at 18.

[Graham47]

3 hours ago, Primus1 said:

is it supposed to show the yellow green arrows indicating it’s in ev mode and the red charging/ engine running ( pointing to the front wheels) at the same time….?

I’ve seen this several times, yesterday for example when coming home via motorway.  I assume it’s an indicator of ev ‘assisting ‘ ICE to drive the car.  Downhill sections showed regen flow as normal and even some stretches of ‘pure’ EV only at speeds in mid 60’s !  
The last couple of miles off the motorway everything was as normal with ‘proper’ EV appearing from time to time.

Avg consumption for that journey was 69.4 on the App.

 

I should add that an earlier section, all built up and busy gave 92.3 mpg with a significant amount of pure EV driving.

[Jimota]

Interesting observation on Saturday.  After an overnight stay at the town of Ayr for a very Scottish style family wedding, I wasn’t looking forward to the journey back home due to the torrential rain and waterlogged parts of the dual carriageway on the A77.  Visibility was poor so I reduced my speed to 50 - 55mph.  Driving at this constant speed I thought I would see a slight improvement in my overall mpg figures.  However, the figure slowly decreased and I put the reason down to  the window wipers operating at the fastest speed throughout the whole journey, dipped headlights switched on and the AC used to keep the windscreen nice and clear.  

Over the past week or so my fuel consumption has reduced from 70 - 67 mpg.  So, despite my best efforts to drive in an efficient manner, the weather really is contributory factor in affecting performance figures for hybrid vehicles.
 

[Cyker]

It does seem the new Yaris and YC are hit particularly hard - If it gets cold enough for snow, I have to choose between freezing my proverbials off or staying warm but taking a 20-30mpg drop!

That's why I am still cursing Toyota UK for omitting heated seats from the specs - Those would have helped so much in winter!!

 

[TonyHSD]

12 hours ago, Jimota said:

Interesting observation on Saturday.  After an overnight stay at the town of Ayr for a very Scottish style family wedding, I wasn’t looking forward to the journey back home due to the torrential rain and waterlogged parts of the dual carriageway on the A77.  Visibility was poor so I reduced my speed to 50 - 55mph.  Driving at this constant speed I thought I would see a slight improvement in my overall mpg figures.  However, the figure slowly decreased and I put the reason down to  the window wipers operating at the fastest speed throughout the whole journey, dipped headlights switched on and the AC used to keep the windscreen nice and clear.  

Over the past week or so my fuel consumption has reduced from 70 - 67 mpg.  So, despite my best efforts to drive in an efficient manner, the weather really is contributory factor in affecting performance figures for hybrid vehicles.
 

All types of cars gets affected by the weather conditions but Toyota hybrids particularly and evs suffers the most because they are generally speaking more efficient. The more efficient is one car the more dependent on weather, tyres, loads, will be. 
Rain + winds does kill efficiency a lot.
The wet roads create more drag on the tyres and reduce the inertia, ev drive time will decrease and obviously the mpg. Add the lower air temperatures and we have the results. Winter time the cabin heat also takes its tool, AC as well as it’s drains the hybrid Battery. Everything adds on. 

[Primus1]

Driving home from work today I noticed the ev kicking in as it used to, still showing less mpg than it used to so it does appear that it’s weather related..

[Lawnmowerman]

On 10/8/2023 at 10:21 PM, Cyker said:

It does seem the new Yaris and YC are hit particularly hard - If it gets cold enough for snow, I have to choose between freezing my proverbials off or staying warm but taking a 20-30mpg drop!

That's why I am still cursing Toyota UK for omitting heated seats from the specs - Those would have helped so much in winter!!

 

Just think of the low figure as a decent average and the high (good weather figure) a real bonus!

A bit like those who moan about holidays in school term being more expensive - they're not. They are the standard fare - out of term time you get a discount 😂😂.

[Stopeter44]

On 10/8/2023 at 11:21 PM, Cyker said:

That's why I am still cursing Toyota UK for omitting heated seats from the specs - Those would have helped so much in winter!!

Before my Yaris, I thought heated seats were a wimpy gadget. The French spec Yaris and Yaris cross have these with the top trim levels but not on the, otherwise, sweet spot spec of the design. If I get another Yaris I’ll go for the heated seats.